Adjusting
by Thelchtereia
Summary: The soft strands of fur that passed between my fingers were comforting in a way that I would never admit to anyone else... InuixKaidoh


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Prince of Tennis, any of the characters, or most of the idea. That is all copyright Takeshi Konomi, I'm merely adding my own thoughts and expanding on some of the characters for absolutely no profit or gain.

**Warnings: **Rated T for yaoi implications, and one straightforward moment at the end. There are also spoilers from episode 71.

**Author's Note:** Okso, this is my second Prince of Tennis fanfic and I've never done Inui or Kaidoh before so uh forgive any OOCness. Again, I also don't usually write in first person but after the other fic flowed so well I decided to give it another try. I love hearing feedback, good or bad, so long as it's constructive.

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The soft strands of fur that passed between my fingers were comforting in a way that I would never admit to anyone else. It was bad enough that bastard Momoshiro always decided to pick fights; better to keep everything to myself instead of offering him more ammunition.

Normally I wouldn't even allow myself to be this unguarded in public no matter how upset I was, but yesterday had been particularly upsetting. Not to mention it was rather windy and the park was empty save for me and the lonely cat that had distracted me from my afternoon run.

Unfortunately, the silence left me to my thoughts which, after yesterday, only served to confuse me more.

At first I thought I heard wrong. After all, there were a lot of things going on around me and it was hard to hear. But… after hearing it twice, so certain from Inui-sempai's lips, I didn't know what to think anymore.

It had taken every last ounce of my courage to walk even in the general direction of the street tennis courts Inui-sempai had mentioned, and when I got there the place was deserted.

With my cell phone dead and no one around, I decided to walk home and just play it off as some sort of twisted practical joke.

The rest of the night I couldn't get it out of my head. I didn't know whether to be angry with Inui-sempai (had it been some weird attempt to collect more of his cursed data?) or with someone else (a dare maybe?), or even with myself for over-analyzing everything (perhaps Inui was rubbing off on me).

As much as I wanted it to, the next day at practice didn't solve anything. Inui seemed to be avoiding me, and he disappeared completely after practice. At least after that it didn't seem awkward that I took off. No one seemed to notice anyways, and it felt nice sometimes to just run and not have to think about where I was going.

Ending up under a tree in a secluded park with a cat happily purring in my lap hadn't exactly been the plan, but I suppose the glory of it was that there was no plan to begin with.

I hadn't noticed my attention was wandering until the cat looked straight up at me and meowed to bring me back. Smiling down at it, I scratched behind its ears before noticing that it was looking over my shoulder at someone else.

I froze where I sat, letting out a hiss of air to vent my frustration at being caught in such a vulnerable state. When I turned my head and saw who it was, my heart started pounding in my chest.

The first words out of Inui Sadaharu's mouth were an apology, albeit an abrupt version of one. It took me a moment to register both the words and the fact that the pounding in my chest had nothing to do with anger.

As I let my emotions war for dominance, unsure of whether I should jump up and start yelling or politely accept the apology, Inui-sempai went on to explain that there had indeed been _a_ date going on the previous afternoon involving Momoshiro and Tachibana's little sister.

I went back to absently petting the cat—who had gone back to purring like mad and rubbing against my knee—and let all of this information sink in. I didn't expect the sharp pain that replaced the excitement I had finally recognized; I suppose that at that point I hadn't realized how much I had accepted what my mind had chosen to hear.

I must have shown some fragment of this emotion on my face, because the next thing I knew Inui was asking me if something was wrong. I felt the blush creep across my cheeks and knew I couldn't stop it, so I bowed my head to hide it as I replied that nothing was wrong.

Inui muttered some percentage and something about lies which I didn't quite catch (though the gist of it was easy enough to guess) and on instinct I glared up at him and repeated that nothing was wrong. He eyed me skeptically, but to avoid being redundant I simply glared back.

As soon as he took the breath to voice the question again, I rose to my feet and whirled to face him. I took the easy way out and let my anger take over, ignoring the part of me that told me to just sit back down and pretend to not be bothered by the question. In the confusion of the moment, the cat yowled and bolted away from me to take refuge behind Inui's legs.

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and as soon as they escaped I wished I could take them back. As if the stricken look on Inui's face wasn't enough of a clue; I should've known that this was all some ploy for new data.

The one thing I prided myself on was that at least the 'new data' I supplied went against his calculations. Ironically enough, it also went against even what I thought myself capable of.

I certainly had a part of me that wished Inui was sincere when he called me to invite me to the tennis courts… on a date. It had shocked me at the time, sure, but overnight when I thought it over I realized that I really wanted those words to ring true. Of course, I never intended to tell Inui that, but now it was too late.

I turned away before what I said could fully set in, hoping that I could avoid the surprise and rejection I was sure to see on his face. I pushed off hard with my right foot, the urge to break into a run winning over, but before I could even get a step away I felt a strong hand wrap around my wrist.

At first I fought hard, not wanting to have to deal with the humiliation that was sure to follow nor the stern look I would likely get from Inui as he collected more of his precious data.

I didn't know why he would purposely hold me to submit me to this torture, but he certainly didn't seem as though he would let go anytime soon. After a few moments of tugging against him, Inui pulled back hard and threw me off balance. Before I could regain it I found the bark of the tree pressing against my back and Inui's face mere inches from my own.

As I thought, his eyes revealed none of his true feelings behind the twin sheets of glass that covered them, but there was something in them that was different. For what seemed like an endless moment, he simply watched me and all I could do was stare blankly back.

Then, before I even knew what was happening, he closed the space between us and pressed his lips against mine.

My heart raced wildly, reveling in the new sensation as my mind slowly whirred to life. When my thoughts finally decided to kick in I jerked backward away from the kiss and eyed him suspiciously. I suppose it was because I didn't want to get my hopes up, but my mind wouldn't discard the possibility that he was only doing this for the data.

In a low and quiet voice that held much less of the calculating bluntness than most acquaintances of the boy were used to, Inui threw out all such fears of mine and quickly added that I had defied everything he had collected about me.

After that he smiled, so I figured that was a good thing, but he didn't give me much time to dwell on that thought before he leaned forward to kiss me again. This time, I didn't fight.

Neither of us noticed the cat twining around our legs still purring and seemingly happy despite the lack of attention it was receiving, but it seemed to have learned to adjust to the fact that it wasn't the only one anymore who could make me smile.


End file.
